Carbon Forks -Can they be trusted??

Hi- I bought my 17 year old a Rocky Mountain 2013 Solo Cross CXR a couple of months back. Yesterday, when hitting a small bump on a roadway the front forks broke and sent the kid flying. The kid is fine and the bike is in to be fixed. The forks broke halfway up from the backside forward. The front wheel survived close to unscathed.
The issue I have is 1) Rocky Mountain says that the bike must have been in an accident (but it wasn't) and two-once it is fixed with new forks that it sounds like I need to pay for-my kid does not know whether the bike is safe since it broke out of the blue- with light road riding only.

So the question is- once I have replacement forks- can I trust Carbon fiber forks? Thoughts?

Re: Carbon Forks -Can they be trusted??

Originally Posted by JPH_Calgary

Hi- I bought my 17 year old a Rocky Mountain 2013 Solo Cross CXR a couple of months back. Yesterday, when hitting a small bump on a roadway the two front forks broke and sent the kid flying. The kid is fine and the bike is in to be fixed. The forks broke halfway up from the backside forward. The front wheel survived close to unscathed.
The issue I have is 1) Rocky Mountain says that the bike must have been in an accident (but it wasn't) and two-once it is fixed with new forks that it sounds like I need to pay for-my kid does not know whether the bike is safe since it broke out of the blue- with light road riding only.

So the question is- once I have replacement forks- can I trust Carbon fiber forks? Thoughts?

Yes, carbon forks can be trusted, and you only need to install one of them.

He was riding back from Rowing workout with a friend and his friend was quite puzzled what happened.The bike is only two months old and still gets well looked after and pampered. We bought as a 'tough' road bike- it has never been 'crashed' in anyway nor has it been off road. I think there must have been a flaw in that particular fork. The guy a the bike shop said that the fact that it broke with a jagged edge means that it crashed however that is crap since a cloth reinforced product will always have a jagged edge unless it was pure resin.

What is the experience with them? Would this be a one off or are they much more fragile than steel /moly . I never had to worry about them breaking -just bending -in the past.

It is almost impossible to buy a low-mid to upper end bike these days without a carbon fiber fork. Even in the early days of carbon forks, breaks were rare. These days, almost unheard of. So much so that I'd say your son isn't telling you the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Thanks for the feedback. The bike was not crashed and there is no reason for the kid to not relay the truth. The front wheel was in fine condition after the mishap and the location of the breaks were at about the half way point on the spokes so I really don't know how they could break there-even in a crash without the wheel being damaged.
If it is a one in a million event or if the fork was damaged during handling or shipping -then that is okay. It is more of a case of trusting the piece.
Thanks again for your replys.

Carbon Forks -Can they be trusted??

I'm not going to beat around the bush. Someone either crashed the bike, stomped on it repeatedly, threw it down a stairwell, or something equally violent. I've never owned a road or CX bike without a carbon fork. Never broken one, either.

That includes getting hit by a car that was going 55mph, and several other yard sale crashes.

I think the key some are missing here is "17 year old"
When I was 17, any bike was a beater. Curbs were slammed into, bike was dropped repeatedly, crashes were frequent and hard. Even a hard pothole hit fast enough could cause some damage. Hell, I bent the steel fork that came on my first bike when I was 12, I couldn't tell you what did it, but it was toast after less than a year of riding.

I have ridden thousands of miles both on and off road on carbon forks and have never had one break. In the same time I have broken a frame, crankset, bottom bracket, two wheels and a saddle, but my reynolds carbon fork (and before it the ritchey) have never broken.

That includes getting hit by a car that was going 55mph, and several other yard sale crashes.

Going to echo the others sentiments as the wife and I have had carbon forks on our road, tt, and cx bikes since the new millennium. And while I have not been hit by a car, I did t-bone a car that turned left in front of me while riding on a tt bike built from a Chinese open mold carbon frame and fork. I took a nice flight over the hood as ended up with a nice gouge on the lower leg from the chainring, but the impact did a whole lot more damage to the front of the ladies Toyota Camry than it did to my bike! Other than a slightly out of true Reynolds SDV 66 front wheel, the bike was/is fine.

The fork broke half way down the blade and theres no physical damage to the wheel or head/down tube junction? Maybe it IS a freak accident..but i doubt it. If you really wanna find out what happened have the fork analyzed..